Bring Back the B.S.

I didn’t know about Pharmacy God until a few weeks ago. By that, he had already shut down his blogging. So I read through all his posts to see why he was so almighty. One theme I discovered in his blogging is his desire to have the B.S. Pharmacy degree returned. PG gives the following reasons.

I also believe that we should go back offering the 5-year B.S. with the option for the PharmD. High school students don’t want to go to college for a six (or eight) year entry-level degree. The kids who want to do that already know that they want to be a medical doctor or a PhD, not a pharmacist.

Now in Pharmacy God state the minimum is the six-year PharmD, with a few schools taking as long as eight years. That plus the talk of requiring a residency after graduation isn’t that attractive to high school students.

If you want a PharmD, great…. make it an option that can be pursued after the 3rd or 4th year. But bring back the B.S. degree so we can get more bodies out here to cover the shortage in community pharmacy.

For the most part, I have to agree with Mr. God. Some students are certain they want to work for a retail/community setting. For these peeps, the PharmD is overkill. The preceptor for my IPPE held a bachelors degree. From what I experienced, she did her job well. She was able to verify scripts, control the techs, receive fax/phone orders, answer OTC questions, answer drug interaction questions, and gave me an honors passing. I think for most pharmacy positions, a bachelors is sufficient. Then if they change their mind and desire a doctorate, they can go and do a non-traditional route.

The only problem I have with bringing back the bachelors is that there will be immature high school students trying to get that degree. They will simply want to work in retail to get paid well. They won’t have much interest in their fellow co-workers, patients, or furthering the profession. In order to weed these people out, exactly how competitive do we have to make the degree?

In my first year, my class did discuss the requirement of residencies after graduation. I don’t want to get into much detail now because I have to go soon, but I am against it. My primary reason is what will happen to make an individual more competitive after the required residencies? A PGY-3? PGY-4? I might talk more about this in a future post.

One other thing PG and I have in common. We like Victoria’s Secret models. Ambrosia for him, Lima for me.

Haha, you have a point. Maybe I should have written instead, “We like to flip our underwears inside-out when we’re too lazy to do our laundry.” Not that I would know what Pharmacy God does inside his house . . .